The tilt of the Earth has changed due to the pumping of groundwater. It can also affect the climate

Author:
Liza Brovko
Date:

The Earthʼs tilt changed by 80 centimeters between 1993 and 2010 due to the amount of groundwater that humans pumped out of the planetʼs interior. It is estimated at 2 150 gigatons.

Space writes about it.

Scientists found out that the position of the pole of rotation does not coincide with the geographic north and south poles and changes over time.

In 2016, they found that climate-related processes, such as the melting of icebergs and the redistribution of water mass, affect the axis of rotation of the globe, but until the researchers added pumped water to their calculation models, the results did not fully match the observations. The study showed that water pumped from mid-latitudes has the greatest influence on the tilt of the planet.

Because the tilt of the Earthʼs axis can affect the seasonal weather on the surface of the planet, scientists are wondering whether the shift in the pole of rotation can change the climate in the long term.